Ann Hanson was on a mission. When a local priest, Father Raphael Paul, began organizing a group of physicians and nurses to travel to his home town of Limbe, Haiti to provide medical care to the people following the devastating earthquake, Ann joined the efforts, along with 23 other medical professionals on a mission to help.
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A registered nurse at Saint Anthony’s Health Center, Ann and her colleagues quickly adapted to the challenging surroundings to provide medical care. Between leaving the United States and arriving in Haiti, many of their supplies and equipment had either been lost or stolen. Seeing over 1,100 patients in a makeshift clinic and performing almost 25 surgeries, Ann believes the biggest lesson that she learned was that each day was in God’s hands.
“The first day in clinic we saw 175 patients with nothing but our stethoscopes,” said Ann. “No medicines, no supplies -- nothing. But, God provided and we diagnosed all 175 patients and gave prescriptions to those who needed them to come back the next day for their medicine and told the ones who needed surgery to check with us each day and we would let them know where we would be doing the surgeries.”
In the clinic Ann saw everything -- from malnutrition, skin conditions, GI problems, wounds, cysts, masses and hypertension. After the first two days in clinic, Ann left with the surgical team each morning to go to St. John's Catholic Hospital in Limbe where the team was able to use rooms for surgery.
“We removed many growths, separated an 18-month-old girl's webbed fingers, did a medically necessary circumcision on a seven year-old boy and worked on several hernias, a breast mass, wound debridements, a prolapsed uterus and many other things. These people would have never been able to afford these procedures otherwise. We also saw a one year-old girl with a hole in her heart who will surely die without surgery in the United States. Unfortunately, that surgery is not a possibility. It was sad to see the people that you just couldn’t help or save.”
Since returning from her trip to Haiti, Ann has become aware how easy it is to count blessings when you have very little and how gratitude comes easy when life is difficult.
“I realized how much I have complicated my own life with things and schedules and occasional misplaced priorities,” said Ann. “I was determined when I got home from Haiti to simplify my life so that I might more easily recognize the blessings in it and be able to praise God with the enthusiasm of the Haitians."